Chapter 4

DIGESTIVE
SYSTEM

Fathiah Abdullah
 ▪ At the end of this topic, you should be able to
1. recognize and explain evolutionary adaptations in a variety of
animals for specific food types and feeding mechanisms.
2. discuss 5 fundamental activities of the digestive system, giving
an example of each.
3. identify the various parts of the digestive system.
4. identify the function of the various parts of the digestive
system.
5. explain how carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and nucleic acids
are digested into their component nutrients.

FA
▪ The average human being has over 400 different
species of bacteria in their colon
▪ It takes approximately 7 seconds for food to
travel through the esophagus and reach the
stomach
▪ The liver has over 500 different functions, one of
which is producing bile to break down digestive
fats
▪ The approximate surface area of the small intestine is 2,700 feet; That’s over
half the size of a basketball court!
▪ Hydrochloric acid, produced by the stomach, can dissolve metal but has no
effect on plastic
▪ Food is cooled or warmed in the mouth until it is a good temperature for the
body

FA
 Basking shark

▪ Aquatic animals that use a body

structure similar to a filter basket to
gather plants and animals suspended
in the surrounding water.
▪ The filter feeder siphons water into its
mouth and then filters it to obtain small
organisms to digest. The tube sponge
is a filter feeder.

FA
Colonial sea squirts
 Caterpillar

▪ Substrate feeders live in or on their

food source and eat their way
through it.
▪ Caterpillars eat their way through
the green tissues of leaves.
▪ Earthworms eat their way through
the soil, ingesting soil particles
containing partially decayed
organic material as they go.

FA
Earthworm
 Mosquito

Ticks
▪ Obtain food by sucking or
licking nutrient-rich fluids from
live plants or animals.
▪ Fluid feeders have mouth parts
that are adapted to pierce or rip
skin or leaf tissue. The same or
other mouth parts are used to
suck or lick the blood or sap that
is their food.
▪ Examples : Aphids, spiders,
bees, butterflies, vampire bats

FA Hummingbird
 Great blue heron

▪ include many animals and most

vertebrates (including humans).
▪ Bulk feeders ingest fairly large
pieces of food and some, like the
great blue heron, swallow their
food whole.
▪ Other bulk feeders use tentacles,
pincers (crab), claws, fangs
(snake), or jaws and teeth to kill
prey, to tear off pieces of meat or
vegetation, or to take in
mouthfuls of animal or plant food.

FA
Snake
FA
 The act of eating is the first stage of food processing.
 Food is packaged in bulk form where it contains very complex arrays of
molecules including large polymers and various substances that may be
difficult to process or even toxic

Human FA
 The second stage of food
processing
 Is the process of breaking
food down into molecules,
small enough for body to  The third stage of food
absorb processing
 Involves enzymatic  Is the uptake of
hydrolysis of polymers into nutrients (e.g: amino
their monomers acid, glucose) by body
 Chemical digestion is usually cells
preceded by mechanical
fragmentation of the food (e.g:
chewing) → breaking food into
smaller pieces increase
surface area exposed to
digestive enzymes

FA
4) Assimilation
• The fourth stage
• The uptake of nutrients into
cells and building up into
more complex substances.

 The fifth stage of food

processing
 Occurs as undigested
material passes out of the
digestive compartment

FA
▪ Each organ of the
mammalian
digestive system
has specialized
food-processing
functions
▪ The mammalian
digestive system
consists of the
alimentary canal
and various
accessory glands
that secrete
digestive juices
through ducts

FA
 Salivary
Tongue
Sphincter glands
Salivary Oral cavity Mouth
glands Pharynx
Esophagus
Esophagus

Sphincter
Liver Stomach Gall-
bladder Stomach
Ascending
portion of Gall-
large intestine bladder Small
Liver intestines
Pancreas
Pancreas Large
Small
Small intestine Duodenum of intestines
intestine
small intestine
Rectum
Large intestine Anus
Rectum
Appendix A schematic diagram of
Anus
the human digestive system
Cecum

FA
FA
  In the oral cavity, food is lubricated and digestion begins

1. Teeth - Chew food into smaller particles that are exposed to

salivary amylase.
2. Saliva
▪ Possesses buffer capacity, prevents tooth decay (neutralizing
acid), antibacterial agents.
▪ salivary amylase - initiating the breakdown of glucose polymers

3. Tongue - Its movements manipulate the food, and shape it into a

ball called bolus.

FA
  Mucin : slippery glycoprotein (carbohydrate-protein complex) in
saliva
 protects the lining of the mouth from abrasion
 lubricates food for easier swallowing

(a) Salivary mucins could agglutinate microbes, which would facilitate their
removal during swallowing. (b) Salivary mucins could also disperse bacteria
through glycan-specific interactions.
FA
▪ After food is deemed acceptable and chewing commences, tongue
movements manipulate the food, helping shape it into a ball called bolus
 The region we call our throat is the pharynx
 A junction that opens to both the esophagus and the trachea
 The esophagus connects to stomach, the trachea leads to the lungs
 The esophagus
 Conducts food from the pharynx down to the stomach by peristalsis
▪ Swallowing must be carefully choreographed to keep food from entering
and blocking the airway
▪ During swallowing, a flap of cartilage called the epiglottis prevents from
entering the trachea by covering glottis
▪ If the swallowing reflex fails, food or liquid will reach the trachea and
cause choking

FA
 1. Mucosa (innermost
layer) : Absorptive and
secretory
2. Submucosa (beneath
the mucosa) : Absorbed
molecule of mucosa
picked up by the blood
vessels of submucosa
3. Muscularis externa
(muscle layer) :
Segmental contractions
and peristaltic
movement
4. Serosa (outermost
layer): Protective layer
and secretory
(lubricating serum fluid)
FA
From mouth to stomach

4 The esophageal
sphincter relaxes,
allowing the
bolus to enter the
Epiglottis
esophagus.
Bolus of food up
Tongue Glottis
Epiglottis
up down
Pharynx
and open
Esophageal Esophageal
Glottis Epiglottis Esophageal
sphincter sphincter
Larynx sphincter
contracted down relaxed 5 After the food
Trachea has entered the contracted
Esophagus esophagus, the Relaxed
To lungs To stomach larynx moves
Glottis up muscles
downward and
and closed opens the
Contracted
breathing muscles
3 The larynx, the
1 When a person is not passage.
upper part of the 6 Relaxed
swallowing, the esophageal Waves of muscular
respiratory tract,
contraction muscles
sphincter muscle is contracted, 2 The swallowing moves upward and
the epiglottis is up, and the reflex is triggered (peristalsis)
tips the epiglottis
glottis is open, allowing air when a bolus of move the bolus
over the glottis,
to flow through the trachea food reaches the down the esophagus
preventing food
to the lungs. pharynx. to the stomach.
from entering the
trachea. Stomach
FA
▪ Acts as a temporary storage.
▪ Churns the bolus of food to form
chyme.
▪ Site of protein digestion.
▪ Secretes gastric juices (containing
hydrochloric acid and pepsin
enzyme).
▪ The stomach stores food
▪ and secretes gastric juice, which
converts a meal to acid chyme
▪ Gastric juice
▪ Is made up of hydrochloric acid
and the enzyme pepsin
FA
 ▪ The lining of the stomach
▪ Is coated with mucus, which prevents the gastric juice from
destroying the cells

▪ HCl
▪ disrupts the extracellular matrix that binds cell together in
meat and plant material
▪ Low pH → kill the bacteria but also denatures proteins in
food, thus expose the peptide bond
▪ Pepsin
▪ Protein digestive enzyme / protease
▪ Works best in strongly acidic environment
▪ It cleaves protein into smaller polypeptides

FA
 Esophagus
Sphincter

Stomach
Sphincter

5 µm
Small
Interior surface of stomach.
intestine Folds of
The interior surface of the
epithelial
stomach wall is highly folded
tissue
and dotted with pits leading
into tubular gastric glands. Epithelium 3
1 Pepsinogen and HCI
Gastric gland. The gastric Pepsinogen Pepsin (active enzyme) are secreted into the
glands have three types of cells 2 lumen of the stomach.
HCl
that secrete different components
of the gastric juice: mucus cells, 1
chief cells, and parietal cells. 2 HCl converts
pepsinogen to pepsin.
Mucus cells secrete mucus,
which lubricates and protects 3 Pepsin then activates
the cells lining the stomach. more pepsinogen,
Chief cells secrete pepsino- starting a chain
gen, an inactive form of the reaction. Pepsin
digestive enzyme pepsin. begins the chemical
Parietal cell
Parietal cells secrete Chief cell digestion of proteins.
hydrochloric acid (HCl).
FA
 Bile
Liver

Gall-
bladder
Stomach
Intestinal Acid chyme
juice

Pancreatic juice
Duodenum of Pancreas
small intestine

▪ The small intestine

▪ Is the longest section of the alimentary canal
▪ Is the major organ of digestion and absorption
▪ Consists of three sections-duodenum, jejunum and ileum.
FA
▪ Most chemical digestion takes place in the duodenum.
 ▪ The small intestine has a huge surface area
▪ Due to the presence of villi and microvilli that are exposed to
the intestinal lumen

▪ The enormous microvillar surface

▪ Is an adaptation that greatly increases the rate of nutrient
absorption

FA
 The structure of the small intestine

 The core of each villus

 Contains a network of blood vessels and a small vessel
of the lymphatic system called a lacteal

Microvilli
Vein carrying blood to
(brush border)
hepatic portal vessel

Blood
capillaries
Epithelial
cells
Muscle layers
Large Epithelial cells
Villi circular Lacteal
folds
Key Lymph
Nutrient Intestinal wall Villi vessel
absorption
FA
 ▪ Amino acids and sugars
▪ Pass through the epithelium of the small intestine and enter
the bloodstream

▪ After glycerol and fatty acids are absorbed by epithelial cells

▪ They are recombined into fats within these cells

▪ These fats are then mixed with cholesterol and coated with
proteins
▪ Forming small molecules called chylomicrons, which are
transported into lacteals

FA
 ▪ Hormones help coordinate the secretion of digestive juices into the
alimentary canal
Enterogastrone secreted by the
Liver duodenum inhibits peristalsis and
acid secretion by the stomach,
thereby slowing digestion when
acid chyme rich in fats enters the
Entero-
duodenum.
gastrone
Gall-
bladder
Gastrin Gastrin from the stomach
CCK
Stomach recirculates via the bloodstream
back to the stomach, where it
stimulates the production
Amino acids or fatty acids in the of gastric juices.
Pancreas
duodenum trigger the release of
cholecystokinin (CCK), which
stimulates the release of digestive
Secretin
enzymes from the pancreas and Duodenum
bile from the gallbladder.
Secreted by the duodenum,
CCK secretin stimulates the pancreas
Key to release sodium bicarbonate,
which neutralizes acid chyme
Stimulation from the stomach.

Inhibition

FA
 ▪ The large intestine, or colon is connected to the small intestine

• A major function is to reabsorb

water that has entered the
alimentary canal
• Stores, processes, and eliminates
the residue following digestion and
absorption
• Consists of ascending, transverse,
descending and rectum
• The wastes of the digestive tract,
the feces
▫ Become more solid as they
move through the colon
▫ Pass through the rectum and
exit via the anus

FA
• Enzymatic digestion is completed
as peristalsis moves the mixture
of chyme and digestive juices
along the small intestine FA
FA
 Fat globule ▪ These fats are then mixed with cholesterol
and coated with proteins

Bile salts
1) Large fat globules are emulsified by
1 bile
salts in the duodenum.

2) Digestion of fat by the pancreatic

Fat droplets
enzyme lipase yields free fatty
coated with
bile salts acids and monoglycerides, which
Micelles made then form micelles.
up of fatty acids,
monoglycerides,
and bile salts
3) Fatty acids and monoglycerides leave
micelles and enter epithelial cells by diffusion.

Epithelial
cells of 4) Chylomicrons containing fatty substances are
small Lacteal transported out of the epithelial cells and into
intestine lacteals, where they are carried away from the
intestine by lymph.
FA